Our illustrative couple with two cars living in San Mateo with clean driving records would pay $1,791 with Horace Mann, $1,985 with Wawanesa, or $2,186 with GEICO, compared to $3,103 with State Farm and $3,263 with Farmers (the state’s two largest insurers), and $4,089 with Liberty Mutual and $5,794 with Sentry.

If that couple has a less-than-perfect driving record (e.g., two speeding tickets in the last year), they’d pay $2,306 with USAA, $2,358 with Horace Mann, $2,729 with GEICO, or $2,813 with Wawanesa, compared to $3,943 with State Farm and $4,420 with Farmers, and more than $5,000 with Liberty Mutual, Sentry and 21st Century.

For a family that needs to add a teenager to their policy (God help them), premiums are $2,545 with Horace Mann, $2,900 with GEICO, or $3,179 with Esurance, compared to $5,336 with State Farm and a whopping $10,628 with Farmers.

Although it’s a bit of a pain to shop for auto insurance, most consumers would agree that spending a few hours to save $1,000 or more every year is worth the effort. Note that you don’t have to wait until your current policy term expires to take advantage of the savings you’d get from a switcheroo—when you switch to a lower-priced company, your old insurance company will refund the unused share of your premium. You also don’t have to forsake service for a better rate: We found that some highly rated companies offer low rates.

Check our auto insurance comparison tool to see how companies stack up for price and quality. Because small differences in policyholder characteristics can have big effects on some companies’ premiums, be sure to check rates yourself.

You want to buy enough coverage to protect yourself—but not so much that you’re wasting money. We advise on that, too. The highlights:

Auto Insurance Articles

Our price comparisons of local auto insurers reveal dramatic company-to-company rate differences—several hundred dollars a year for most consumers, and several thousand dollars for many. And you don’t have to forsake service for a better rate.

When shopping for insurance, many drivers care about more than just cost, and with good reason: If you have a claim, you want it to paid quickly and get back on the road with minimal hassle. We provide ratings of insurers for claims-handling service.

Unlike the law in most states, California law bars insurers from using factors like credit scores, gender, education, homeownership, and secretive info to set their rates. Instead, companies are required to give the greatest weight in determining rates to three factors: how long you’ve been driving, your driving record, and how much you drive each year. Beyond these factors, companies are allowed to use other factors to set their rates (we describe many of them below), but the average weight of secondary factors must not exceed the weight given to the primary factors in the company’s premium calculations.

When evaluating any coverage, or deciding how much insurance to buy, keep in mind that the purpose of insurance is to protect you from losses you can’t afford to cover yourself. When you buy more insurance than you need, you waste money.